SaS Files Criminal Complaint Over Halt to Electricity Supplies to Ukraine

Bratislava, 24 February (TASR) - Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) may have committed several criminal offences with his statements and actions aimed at halting emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine, the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party told a briefing held on the occasion of filing a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor-General's Office on Tuesday. SaS chair Branislav Groehling said that Fico has thus joined Russia's side in its war against Ukraine. "He's supporting that aggression by exerting political pressure with a view to cutting off electricity to Ukraine, so that we'll stop helping Ukraine in this humanitarian fashion. Our evaluation is that this meets the criteria of a criminal offence, and we're filing several criminal complaints at the same time," said Groehling at a briefing held in front of the Prosecutor-General's Office. According to him, the complaints have been filed regarding the suspicion of abuse of public office, high treason, inhumanity, a breach of obligations in the management of somebody else's property, and a terrorist attack. SaS MP Karol Galek said that the fact that Slovakia continues to be a 'hostage' to Russian oil is the government's fault, noting that the halt to supplies following damage to an oil pipeline is the reason why Slovakia has reciprocally stopped part of its electricity supplies to Ukraine. "He [Fico] isn't going to stop the commercial flow of electricity, which is commonly available. This will continue to flow, and he doesn't mind this. What he's going to do is halt so-called emergency assistance," said Galek, calling such conduct a crime against humanity. He added that Fico is also committing high treason by opening up a new front against Ukraine, this time from the west. Galek called this high treason against Slovaks "as we will be carrying out the orders of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin". According to SaS vice-chairwoman Maria Kolikova, Fico's statements must be raising concerns and alarm among part of the population both in Slovakia and in Ukraine, which is why SaS also considers such conduct to be the spreading of a false alarm. She added that Fico lacks the power to order electricity grid operator SEPS to halt electricity supplies, which raises the question of a possible abuse of public office. "We can see what the prime minister is doing, we hear his statements, so this is first and foremost an issue of political accountability. But, in our opinion, the impact of these statements also comes with criminal consequences, so it's the Prosecutor-General's Office that should handle them in its capacity as a law-enforcement body," she added. jrg/df